No Place Like Home

Hiking in Tennessee

There’s no place like home! That’s what I said when I walked around my house this morning, back from a trip. We took some vacation time and handled a few business meetings.

We rented a house in Tennessee, near the mountains, and packed up both pets and family and took two cars.  On the way to Tennessee, we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I’d forgotten how beautiful that part of Virginia is…and the trees were just starting to turn gorgeous fall colors.

 

Bridge in the Blue Ridge Mountains

 

Pierre travels in style

Pierre was a trooper, and the cat traveled in style in a large soft-sided dog crate that sort of folded into the well between the front seat of the car and the back seat. It made a hammock for his rolly-polly self, and with my old pink afghan on the bottom of the crate, he had a snuggly little place to hide for the duration of the car trip. Once inside the rental cabin, he was nervous for only about two hours, then he began exploring. Soon he was enjoying the mountain view from the bedroom, where we had floor to ceiling windows, and he could be safely contained.  One opinion Pierre and I shared; we did not like all the taxidermy animals in the cabin!  The cabin was rustic, and had deer heads mounted everywhere, as well as a stuffed fox and squirrel on top of the kitchen cabinets. The first few days, neither pet noticed all the stuffed wildlife….then Pierre spotted the deer head over the couch. Oh boy. It was like World War II broke out, with a hissing, spitting, stalking gray cat after…a deer head.  He’d race around the living room, hiding behind the couches, then leaping and hissing at the head mounted over the top of the couch.  Shadow took a dislike to the fox perched over the kitchen cabinet.  Every time I went to get a dish out of the cabinet, she’d throw herself between me and the counter, barking and growling.  Finally she realized that I wasn’t under attack from a stray dog and just chuffed and growled at the thing.  Shudder.  I really, really dislike dead wildlife stuffed for art…yuck.  But heck, it wasn’t my cabin, and it was a really lovely rental.  It had all the comforts of home, and even a dog run outside for Shadow!

Waterfall, Blue Ridge Mts

I won’t go into all the details of the fun parts, but suffice to say that I learned I can still bike about 12 miles on a trail and enjoy it; hiked to a waterfall (7 miles round trip), and walked 15 miles in one day on another trail. The rest of the trip was car rides and business stuff, which you aren’t interested in anyway.  I did do a lot of garden visits and took notes and have a list a mile long of ideas from all the gardens I saw!

I’ll share the Gentry Creek Falls Trail stories another day.  For now, I’ve got to get back to work, but I thought you might enjoy seeing your humble correspondent and her hiking pal, Shadow.  Pierre, alas, does not hike.  Shadow enjoys wearing her pink bandana to match my pink t shirt.

Glad to be home.  My garden looks like it was solar baked without watering. I have nothing to enter the country fair, since all my zinnias died (sniff) but will help my neighbor bring her canned goods to the fair this weekend.  Lots of fall fun in the works here in the countryside!

Hiking, Blue Ridge Mts